Remanufacture

Fear Factory's second remix album, Remanufacture, continues the group's efforts to fuse death metal with techno and industrial sounds. The record's chief appeal will still lie with metal fans, but it's largely a success — the soundscapes are widely varied, encompassing forays into goth rock, spacy ambient textures, and occasional snatches of melody, and the fusions work well enough that Burton C. Bell's vocals almost seem like intrusions on some tracks. Even if it doesn't quite command attention the whole way through, heavy metal listeners looking for a bridge into industrial and/or techno would do well to give Remanufacture a chance. [The Japanese edition of Remanufacture includes the bonus track "Transgenic."]